Getting paid by my boyfriend

I sometimes fail to understand the way my boyfriend does things. He constantly reminds me of the time I was a little girl and how dad used to be the closest person to run to.

He would, among many things, let me sit on his shoulders every time he was seated down and assured me that I could trust him. He also never let me do a task outside the chores I was allocated by my mother without pay whether it was polishing his shoes, cleaning his brief case or organising his reading table. He taught me the work for anything you want in life motto.

Today, Im quite grown up and in a relationship and my boyfriend seems to be following dads footsteps. Recently, he was working on a project which required a lot of paper work. The amount of work forced him to hire three helpers of which I was one.

To me, it was just helping him as a friend and I used to do it after my daily work schedule and for a short time. The other people he hired were always with him the whole day for 7 days and this meant payment for them.
On the last day of the project, he handed each of us an envelope containing money as payment for the work done.

I was humbled as he explained to me that I deserved payment just like the other people despite the fact that I had spent less time on the project, I didnt know what to say to him.

This also reminded me of the other assignments he had given me over time like helping him bank money, getting something for his mother from the market, staying with a mechanic as he fixed his car while he attended to some other business, ferrying in lunch for him among others.

I remember him always asking how much my services cost and I would usually laugh it off. He would then hand me an envelope with money and plead with me to take it. Nowadays, I dont usually offer to do anything and so he requests me before hand to do it which I cant refuse because I love and respect him.